This poster explores the formation and presence of the Lebanese community in Columbia through the framework of contemporary Mahjar literature. While there is profound scholarship surrounding the North American Mahjar, or (post) exilic, literature, there is relatively less recognition or discourse in the west surrounding Arab diasporic communities in South America. Columbia is a particularly interesting case. Its largest foreign population consists of Arab migrants, yet there is a lack of available research surrounding this community. Literary analysis of Columbian Mahjar literature can illuminate the history of these migrants and expand knowledge of an understudied variant of Lebanese diasporic literature. This analysis can supplement developing theory around diaspora and associated exilic and post-exilic literature. South American Mahjar literature may constitute its own unique sub-genre or extension of post-colonial literature. I conduct pragmatic and stylistic analysis of literary texts from prominent Colombian-Lebanese writers such as Luis Fayad (1945-), Juan Gossaín (1949-), and Meira Delmar (1922–2009), paying special attention to their intertextuality and interlinguistic voices in an effort to transcend purely historical approaches to diaspora studies. I draw upon their cultural productions to analyze the hybridization of identity in conjunction with literary and historical analytical frameworks proposed by both non-Arab and Arab diasporists and postcolonial theorists, such as Edward Said and William Safran. I work with archived primary sources and periodicals in English, Spanish, and Arabic, extending the research done by Colombian historians and academics such as Pilar Vargas and Luz Marina Suaza. My research aims to offer a cohesive representation of contemporary Colombian Mahjar literature in order to contribute to a broader understanding of the ethnic collectivity of the Arab Diaspora community.
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